'By Design' Review: Juliette Lewis Turns Into a Chair in Unique Dramedy That Gets Lost in Its Own Ambition | Sundance 2025

Amanda Kramer's By Design unmistakably fits the filmmaker’s chicly eclectic canon. Past titles like Give Me Pity! and Please Baby Please challenge convention by breaking through the constructs of today's Hollywood expectations. By Design is, as titled, designed to operate outside traditional filmmaking norms. It's a literal interpretation and commentary on female objectification about a rut-stuck protagonist whose soul inhabits a standard-definition chair. Kramer plays with surreal department store catalog visuals and body-swap quirkiness, leaning heavily on interpretive dance to convey meaning. There's nothing like it, but with such extravagant boldness comes risks, and they don’t always pay off.